Handle assembly for picture projection screen

ABSTRACT

A rollup-type screen for receiving projected pictures and constructed to operate either on a floor stand or hung from a wall or ceiling. The construction includes a releasable latch mechanism between the screen roll housing and the floor stand.

United States Patent [72] Inventors Richard C. Kir'berg Elk Grove Village; Christopher C. Hsiao, Buffalo Grove, both of ill. [2]] Appl. No. 880,804 [22] Filed Nov. 28, 1969 [45] Patented Dec. 28, 1971 [73] Assignee Graflex, Inc.

Rochester, N.Y. by said Richard C. Klrberg [54] HANDLE ASSEMBLY FOR PICTURE PROJECTION SCREEN 1 Claim, 8 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S. Cl 24/201, 160/24, 248/171 51 m. a G03b 21/56 [50] Field of Search 160/24; 350/1 17; 24/201 SL, 201 LP; 248/171 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,022,816 2/1962 Petrick et al 160/24 3,182,714 5/1965 Petrick 160/24 3,289,737 12/1966 Kozel 160/24 Primary Examiner- Donald A. Griffin Atlorney- Kenneth T. Snow ABSTRACT: A rollup-type screen for receiving projected pictures and constructed to operate either on a floor stand or hung from a wall or ceiling. The construction includes a releasable latch mechanism between the screen roll housing and the floor stand.

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PATENTED W828 E71 SHEET 2 OF 2 W ui hl I Q. 3 -5 g\ mfg Z 5 mu vvvvmwmvmm --------k a HANDLE ASSEMBLY FOR PICTURE PROJECTION SCREEN BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention Rollup picture-receiving screens of the type generally found on foldable tripod stands are enclosed within a tubular housing. The tubular housing is arranged for positioning either horizontally or vertically relative to a vertical floor standard. The screen is in storage position when the tubular housing is vertically disposed adjacent the floor-engaging standard. When the tubular housing is horizontally disposed the screen is pulled out like a rolled-up shade causing it to be extended for reception of a projected picture. The juncture of the tubular housing and the floor standard generally comprises a single device which includes a handle, a means for adjustably supporting the standard relative thereto, and a connection to the tubular housing. It is this connection which in the past has been only a swivel connection and in the present invention has been made separable by a quick disconnect so the tubular housing with its included rolled-up screen may be removed from the floor support andhung from a wall or ceiling and the screen thereupon extended to receive projected pictures.

2. Description of the Prior Art A search of the prior art discloses that the patent to Braddon, US. Pat. No. 3,207,206 relates to a combination camera mount and screen mount on a tripod support. Braddon has no quick disconnect and the providing of a single mounting for two devices is a different concept than the present invention. The prior patent to Petrick et al., US. Pat. No. 3,022,816 shows a disconnect on a tripod-supported projection screen, but the Patrick et al. device is quite different in construction from the device in the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a quick disconnect for a rollup-type picture-receiving screen from a floor standard for use as a hanging screen.

An important object of this invention is to provide a tubular housing for a rollup-type picture screen with a bracket attached thereto at substantially its center and a combination handle and floor standard removably connected to the bracket.

Another important object of this invention is to provide a pushbutton latch mechanism intermediate a floor standard handle and a tubular housing for a rollup picture-receiving screen.

Other and further important objects of this invention will become apparent from the disclosures in the following specification and accompanying drawings.

IN THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a projected picture-receiving screen mounted on a floor stand.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2 with the screen roll in the process of being removed.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 with the screen roll in the process of being removed.

FIG. 7 is a detail perspective view of the bracket utilized intermediate the screen roll and the handle on the floor stand.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the screen roll carried on a wall and used as a picture-receiving screen separately from the floor stand.

AS SHOWN IN THE DRAWINGS The reference numeral 10 indicates generally a picturereceiving screen to be used for projected slide or movie pictures. The screen 10 is provided with a tubular housing 11 into which it rolls in the manner of a shade for storage. When the screen is used on a floor stand such as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings the tubular housing 11 constitutes the bottom of the screen during its extension. When the screen is to be hung on a 5 wall such as depicted in FIG. 8 of the drawings the tubular housing 11 constitutes the top of the screen which is extended downwardly therefrom as a viewing surface. The screen 10 has a cross rod 12 at its end opposite the tubular housing 11 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 8. This rigid rod keeps the flexible screen 10 generally flat in its transverse extension and provides the pulling means for extending the screen to and from its enclosure within the tubular housing 11. The rod 12 is used as a pulling means for extending the screen 10. The rod 12 is provided with a hook 13 in the center thereof to act in the dual capacity of a hand-pulling means and a device to hold the screen in an extended condition. The tubular housing I] is provided for the purpose of hooking the screen to wall supports such as shown in FIG. 8 of the drawings.

As best shown in FIG. 1 the screen 10 is shown mounted on a floor stand 16. The stand 16 includes a foldable tripod base 17 consisting of diverging floor-engaging legs 18, 19, and 20. The stand further includes a lower vertical standard 21 which is preferably triangular in cross section. A hinge bracket 22 is vertically slidable on the triangular-shaped standard 18. Braces 23, 24, and 25 extend between midpoints of the tripod legs 18, I9, and to the base of the vertical standard 21. A hinge bracket 26 encircles the bottom of the standard 18 and hingedly receives the inner ends of the braces 23, 24, and 25. The floor stand 16 further includes an upper vertical standard 27 which telescopically engages the lower vertical standard 21. The upper end of the upper vertical standard 27 is bent over at right angles as shown at 28 and constitutes a support to receive the hook 13 mounted centrally of the screens cross rod 12. The engagement of the hook 13 with the right-angle bend 28 holds the screen 10 in extended position from the tubular housing 11.

A handle fixture is designated generally by the numeral 29. It is by this handle means that the floor stand picture screen is transported. The handle 29 includes a hand-gripping portion 30 and a main body portion 31. The body portion includes a vertical passage 32, triangular in cross section, to receive the triangularly shaped lower standard 21. An angularly disposed, shiftable plate 33 is provided in the upper portion of the passage 32 to cause a locking of the handle relative to the vertical standard by means of the cocking of the plate 33 in the passageway 32. A coil spring 34 has its upper end engaged to the outer end of the angled plate 33 and its lower end anchored to a lower position on the body portion 31 of the handle fixture 29. This causes a constant urging of the plate 33 against the standard 21.

A hinged lock member 35 is provided in the lower portion of the vertical passageway 32 and additionally frictionally engages the vertical standard 21. A generally horizontally disposed spring 36 engages the hinged lock member 35 urging it into engagement with the vertical standard 21. It is thus seen that the handle 29 is held to the vertical standard 21 by two spaced-apart frictional locking means.

Centrally spaced overhanging hooks 37 and 38 are provided at the top of the body portion 31 of the handle 29. The hooks are spaced by a central portion 31a of the body portion 31. An intermediate bracket member 39 is provided between the handle 29 and the tubular screen housing 11. A large central opening 40 is provided in the bracket 39. A relatively large threaded pin 41 joins the intermediate bracket 39 through its opening 40 with the tubular housing 11 and it is about this pin 40 that the tubular housing may be rotated to move from a vertical storage position adjacent the vertical standard to a horizontal use position as shown in FIG. 1. A small projection 42 is provided on the flat surface of the bracket 39 for interlocking engagement with a notch in a built-up portion 43 of the tubular housing ll. The portion 43 provides a flat engaging surface for the surface of the bracket 39. The intermediate bracket 39 includes upwardly projecting spaced-apart tongues 44 and 45 for removable engagement with the spaced-apart overhanging hooks 37 and 38. It is the interlocking engagement of the tongues 44 and 45 with the overhanging hooks 37 and 38 that prevents outward separation of the intermediate bracket from the handle 29 except by a hingelike movement of the handle relative to the intermediate member. The central portion of the body 31 between the overhanging hooks 37 and 38 acts to engage the inner surfaces of the spaced-apart tongues 44 and 45 and thereby prevents lateral shifting movement of the intermediate bracket relative to the handle structure 29. The intermediate bracket further includes parallel spaced-apart side flanges 46 and 47 which project away from the tubular housing 11 in the same direction. A first notch 48 is provided in the side flange 46 and there is a further spacedapart notch 49 in the side flange 46. A notch 50 in the spacedapart side flange 47 is in axial alignment with the notch 49 in the side flange 46.

A projection or button 51 is provided on the body portion 31 of the handle 29 and is adapted for engagement by the notch 48 in the side flange 46. A latching mechanism comprises a transverse pin 52 which is journaled for slidable support within the body 31 of the handle 29. An extended largediameter portion 53 of the transverse pin 52 is adapted to have one end engage the notch 49 in the side flange 46 of the intermediate bracket 39. The pin further includes a short largediameter portion 54 spaced from the portion 53 and it is this large-diameter portion 54 which is adapted for engagement with the notch 50 in the side flange 47. The pin 52 further includes a small-diameter portion 55 adjacent the outer end of the extended large diameter 53. The pin further includes an extended small-diameter portion 56 between the inner end of the extended large-diameter portion 53 and the short largediameter portion 54. A spring 57 surrounds the extended small-diameter portion 56 and causes a spring biasing of the transverse pin 52 axially in a leftward direction as viewed in the sectional view of FIG. 3. The spring 57 has one end abutting the inner end of the large-diameter portion 53 and at its other end abuts a wall 58 of the body portion 31 of the han dle 29. Thus the pin 52 is urged by the spring in an axial exten' sion relative to the body portion 31 of the handle structure 29. The latching pin 52 includes a hand-engaging knob 59 and it is by this means that an operator can push the pin 52 against the action of the spring to effectively cause removal of the handle structure from the intermediate bracket 39.

The open-ended notches 49 and 50 are provided with restricted mouths or reduced-size passageways as clearly shown in FIG. 7. The restricted mouths do not permit passage of the large-diameter portions 53 and 54 of the transverse pin 52 but when the pin 52 is moved in an axial direction by the operator moving the handle 59 in a rightward direction as viewed in FIG. 3 the small-diameter portions 55 and 56 are disposed within the aligned notches 49 and 50. These smalldiameter portions of the transverse pin 52 easily pass through the restricted mouths of the notches 49 and 50 and thus permit an outward swinging of the lower portion of the intermediate bracket 39 and this permits the tongues 44 and 45 to be pulled out from the overhanging hooks 37 and 38 of the handle structure 29.

As best shown in FIG. 8 the tubular housing ll has been removed from the handle structure 29 in the manner just described and has been shown applied to a vertical wall 61 by reason of the hooks l4 and 15.

As best shown in FIG. 2 the tubular housing 1! is provided with an elongated slot 62 to permit passage of the screen 10 in its rolling upwardly or downwardly depending on whether it is used on the floor stand 16 or hung on the wall 6| as shown in the FIGS. 1 and 8.

In the operation of this device it is apparent that with the particular handle mechanism including the quickly detachable intermediate bracket 39 the screen 10 may be optionally used on a floor stand such as shown at 16 in FIG. 1, or on a wall 61 by hanging the tubular housing 11 to the wall by its spacedapart hooks l4 and 15. The separation of the handle mechanism from the tubular housing 11 IS accomplished as previously stated by axially moving the spring-biased locking or latching pin 52. The pin 52 has alternately spaced largediameter portions and small-diameter portions so that in the spring-extended position the large-diameter portions are disposed within the notches 49 and 50 of the intermediate bracket 39 and are prevented from outward movement therefrom by reason of the restricted mouths of these notches. However, when the spring 57 has been overcome by an operator moving the hand knob 59 axially in a rightward direction as viewed in FIG. 3 the small-diameter portions of the locking pin 52 are disposed within the aligned notches 49 and 50 and in this position the handle and the intermediate plate 39 may be easily separated by reason of the free passage of the smalldiameter portions through the restricted mouths of the notches.

What is claimed is:

l. A latch mechanism for joining a tubular housing for a picture-receiving screen and a handle forming part of a floor standard comprising a bracket attached to said tubular housing, said bracket having spaced-apart side flanges, said handle having a portion thereof for disposition between the bracket side flanges, said bracket side flanges having generally axially aligned notches and said notches having restricted mouths to the flange edge, and said handle portion between the bracket side flanges having openings axially aligned with the openings in the bracket flanges, and an axially slidable latch pin disposed within said aligned openings, said latch pin having large-diameter portions and small-diameter portions and spring means normally urging said large-diameter portions to a position within the bracket flange notches, and means to axially slide said latch pin against the action of the spring means to cause said small-diameter portions to be located within the bracket notches whereby the handle and the bracket may be separated by swingably sliding the small-diameter portions through the reduced-size passageways. 

1. A latch mechanism for joining a tubular housing for a picture-receiving screen and a handle forming part of a floor standard comprising a bracket attached to said tubular housing, said bracket having spaced-apart side flanges, said handle having a portion thereof for disposition between the bracket side flanges, said bracket side flanges having generally axially aligned notches and said notches having restricted mouths to the flange edge, and said handle portion between the bracket side flanges having openings axially aligned with the openings in the bracket flanges, and an axially slidable latch pin disposed within said aligned openings, said latch pin having largediameter portions and small-diameter portions and spring means normally urging said large-diameter portions to a position within the bracket flange notches, and means to axially slide said latch pin against the action of the spring means to cause said smalldiameter portions to be located within the bracket notches whereby the handle and the bracket may be separated by swingably sliding the small-diameter portions through the reduced-size passageways. 